Spring Has Sprung!

Do you know the great website Print & Pattern? Well, they have a couple of really inspiring books out and just ran a call for submissions to an upcoming Kids publication which I just entered at the 11th hour. Here are a couple of suitably springy patterns that I sent in...

Black Beauty

Just thought I'd share this painting I did recently (well, as a Christmas present so not really that recent any more)...

A to Z

I'm on a paper cutting mission at the moment, having realised it's one of my favourite things to do creatively. So, I made a big alphabet for our wall at home, and am now doing a series of smaller pictures to sell in my online shop (hopefully done and on sale in the next few weeks).

Oh, and I thought I was very clever in realising that the H and the I in the alphabet would be next to each other and could make a nice message picked out in gold leaf, then found out by doing a Google images search that plenty of other people have already realised the very same thing (although executed differently)!!

Flock

Here's another new pattern, inspired by some flock wrapping paper that I have covering my desk drawers...

Birds

My sister Sasha has an enormous - and scarily comfortable - new sofa and she asked me to make her four big (50x50cm) cushion covers to add a bit of colour. And these are them...

On The Case

I've been very neglectful of my blog, and that's going to change. From today I'm self-imposing a new routine on my freelancing days as motivation has been running a bit low, so part of that is going to be to post new work here MUCH more often. To start with, here's a slightly Scandinavian-inspired pattern I've been doing this morning...

London Art Fair

A couple of weeks ago the London Art Fair was on. I'd never been before, but went along and really liked it. Usually I go to the Affordable Art Fair, and some of the same galleries were exhibiting here, but there were also a lot of very unaffordable pictures that were good to see. There were a couple of paintings by one of my favourite artists - although embarrasingly I didn't know his name until now - William Scott:

My other faves were... Chris Kenny who does brilliant and funny things with pieces of found text:

Simone Lia who has a great simple, quirky illustrative style:

Pierre Imhof:

Henrietta Dubrey:

Christine McArthur who paints simple subjects with lots of lovely texture and muted colours:

Charles Jamieson - that red!:

Cake Maker

I've been working on some new-year-new-ideas for a portfolio update... this is my favourite so far, a very imaginary cupcake making machine:

Happy Christmas!!

Festive Fever

It might be too early to be getting in a festive frame of mind, but the shops say otherwise and it is starting to get quite chilly and dark early, and so here are some new christmas card designs...

Now Open

My sister Sophie has just opened up an online shop selling her limited edition screen prints, hand embroidered cushions and hand painted pebbles. It's a bit of a treasure trove... go here to have a look around!!

Affordable Art Fair

I can't believe it's already time for my annual favourites from the Battersea Affordable Fair. I found some new (to me) artists to admire at this year's exhibition, including:

Gorgeous paintings by Paul Fry who was exhibiting with a couple of galleries, his work uses such subtle colours but with pops of brightness.

More amazing colour work by Sophie Smallhorn

Elegant and slightly old fashioned oil paintings by Sarah Coghill

Unusual but striking colours with great texture by Gerard Bru

Prints Charming(!)

Just thought I'd share these pictures that I reckon might make good prints, maybe on canvas, for children's rooms.

Papercut

My sister's boyfriend commissioned this papercut for her 30th birthday last month. It's some of the lyrics to one of her favourite Joni Mitchell songs - A Case Of You - painted with blackboard paint and mounted on some nice textured rag paper. I really enjoy doing these papercuts, even if my fingers don't thank me for the intense grip they're forced to endure!

September Shop

In the last couple of weeks I've been helping my artist sister Sasha set up a new project (in my very official capacity as marketing & communications officer) - A Painting A Day. Every day in September she's creating a small painting and selling it for just £200 in her new online shop (usually her paintings are very expensive, worth every penny of course, but not affordable to everyone). So far the venture has been going really well, and it's lovely to see the shop gradually fill up. Tip: If you want to get your hands on one check online each day at about 2pm, that's when she usually posts the new painting...